VoIP Phone

Ok, today's technology article is all about VoIP, I'm sure you have heard it, nodded your head sagely in agreement and thought to yourself, what the heck is a VoIP, well my friend, lets dispel the fog and get you up to a conversant level of technology that will set you apart from the googling masses.

VoIP stands for Voice Over IP, ok, that was straight forward but what does it mean, well here is the clue, voice and the abbreviation IP, as you know IP stands for the method of communicating between computers via a network or internet, yup you guessed it, TCP/IP is the correct abbreviation and this is essentially the language of how computers talk to each other, so what does this mean for voice, well as you speak into a microphone attached to your PC, this voice recording is then modulated and converted into a form that allows the computer to send it to another location, where the receiving computer will de-modulate the package and boom, you have your voice message replayed on the other PC, neat, yup, I thought you would like it. Now think, that this ability to convert your voice to a digital format (TCP/IP) and send it to another PC can happen so fast that you are able to have a conversation with the person on the other end, yup, you guessed it, just like a telephone.

Ok, so where are we at, VoIP is the method of using your PC as a telephone to communicate to another party, maybe even old uncle Hank in his fishing lodge in a remote area, yes, as long as he has a reasonable internet connection. Now that you understand how it works, the next thing to consider is why and how do I set one up. The why is simple, once you have your PC connected to the internet, you have essentially paid for the connection flag call and whatever you do from here doesn't really cost you anything, so if for example you make 1000 VoIP calls, it would only cost you the initial internet connection however if you made 1000 calls from your home telephone, it would cost you 1000 times your connection / dial fee., thus its very cheap, especially if you are making long distance calls.

Yup, you got it, you can make international calls at no cost other than your internet monthly cost, now consider, you can sit on the VoIP connection for three hours or more chatting away to family and friends all around the world, at no cost other than your monthly internet connection cost, just imagine if you called someone in another country and yakked on for an hour or three, image the bill you would get, well, no bill from the internet other than your monthly fee.

Now the nest step is how to do it, you can either use Skype or Microsoft messenger, these offer all you will need including video, that's right, you can talk for hours as well as see the people your communicating with but fair ye be warned, make sure you are presentable as you don't want to end up a YouTube sensation. Note that Skype have some advanced level of services which allow you to dial land lines i.e. telephones as well as connect directly to a PC, the PC side is free of charge however to go from the PC to Landline may involve a charge but it is usually far cheaper than a direct call so review the options.

In our next article, how to ensure you don't answer a VoIP video call inadvertently while in your bathrobe, I'm sure the boss wouldn't be amused to see you in this sort of state of affairs.